Title This: WWE Raw Reaction 3-18-13

The Undercard

John Cena defeated Darren Young to kick off WWE Raw. Yeah, you read that right. John Cena, less than 3 weeks away from facing The Rock, starts off a three hour night beating someone who has completely irrelavant. Cena cuts a promo beforehand, but the fact that he and Rock haven't really been seen or build over the past 2 weeks frustrates me. The names on the match is huge, but this match and the same exact promo video shows me that are not trying as hard as they can. They are hanging their hat on history. As a fan, it is frustrating to see how little the champion is on Raw, as well as the misuse of Cena. I would much rather see Cena try and help out another feud, possibly in a match against Swagger.

Grade: C-

Ryback defeated David Otunga in under two minutes. After the match, he talks about focusing on The Shield and he will take care of Mark Henry at a later time. Henry comes out and Vickie books these two men at Wrestlemania. It fell flat to me in many ways. Ryback looked weak and it appeared that he did NOT want to face Henry. Wouldn't he want revenge as soon as possible instead of looking like a coward?

Grade: D

Fandango comes out with more of a set and lighting. He dances and teases a match, but walks out again. I think he is entertaining, but the general audience will dislike him because of the continued repetition. Is this the right time to debut him?

R-Truth defeated Damien Sandow when Sandow walked out on him. Sandow would get counted out after becoming frustrated. Once again, another horrible segment that did nothing for either guy. What is the point of this ending? This gets to the top of the second hour, in horrible fashion.

Grade: D-

Cody Rhodes loses to Alberto Del Rio in a pretty entertaining match. Rhodes, being used as a whipping boy, puts on a good effort against Del Rio. The match was a little slower with a pace that benefitted the submissive moves of ADR. Del Rio is a guy who needs to get the support of the crowd and got it. (Ricardo, during commercial break, challenged the live crowd to yell his name longer and louder during the entrance.) This shows they are trying to do as much as possible to give Del Rio all the support. Let him be athletic and unique offensively, and he will get over. He can add moves similar to John Morrison's, ones that just let you sit there in awe. I want to see more and more, and feel like his fighting with Swagger after the match was good enough to continue to make the feud personal. It started as a focus of all illegal immigrants and now it is coming down to Del Rio and Ricardo. There has been good progression over the past few weeks.